GEAR REVIEW
[ MILKMAN SOUND 50W SIDEMAN | Doug Doppler ]
KEY FEATURES
the studio, if you’re playing six-string, you don’t
need much of anything below 100Hz, so there
• One Channel is not much point of building it into the amp.
• Bright Switch One of the things I love most about the 50W
• Bias Modulating Tremolo Sideman is that the bottom end sounds and
• Tube-driven Spring Reverb feels deep without being boomy. In addition to
• 50 Watts making for a great play, this also makes it much
• 2x 6L6 easier to capture with a mic.
• 1x 12” or 15” Speaker
50W SIDEMAN fall short. Some strings or areas of the neck
I first heard about Milkman Sound from Phil I am the proud owner of a 1964 Fender respond perfectly while others don’t – I literally
Traina, aka The Gear Concierge. So, by the Vibroverb, which was rumored to have been find myself making mental notes about where
time I ended up at Tim Marcus’ workshop my designed for pedal steel players. When I I can and cannot go on the neck, all of which
expectations were pretty high. heard that Tim plays guitar and pedal steel, tends to vary when switching instruments. And
my excitement about reviewing the 50W if by chance you’re a P90 fanatic, you’ll love the
My hang time with Tim was every bit as Sideman peeked! Originally designed as a two- Bright Switch!
enjoyable as his amps are to play. Why does channel “go between” amp for guitar and pedal this matter one might ask? When given the steel players, the 50W Sideman was and is PEDAL PLATFORM
chance, the longer you talk with someone like everything that I’d hoped it would be. As seen in the Wallace Detroit Guitars demo in
Tim, the more likely you are to find out why their
circuits are crafted as they are.
this issue, the first pedal I reached for was a
DIRTY, CLEAN , AND IN BETWEEN vintage TS9 Tube Screamer. This combination
At higher volumes, there is plenty of raw exceeded my expectations – the long, singing
In talking with Tim, a couple of things became overdrive that is easy to tame with your volume notes felt amazing under my fingertips! Later
apparent. He loves vintage amps, but he’s not control. That said, the clean tone on this amp I plugged in the new EHX Corset compressor
afraid to color outside of the lines of tradition. is second to none. I literally played for half hour and holy cow did the roof come off. The volume
One common misconception guitar players before I even thought about grabbing a pedal. control on the Corset allowed me to goose
tend to have is that for an amp to sound big The bottom end is rich but not boomy, the mids the amp to into that delightful halfway point
it has to have massive low end. Be it live or in are warm and never pokey, and the highs are between a cranked Tweed and Blackface.
sparkly without getting
spikey.
Tim
clearly
REVERB + VIBRATO
spent a lot of time fine Speaking of Blackface, the reverb and vibrato
tuning this circuit to circuits on the 50W Sideman have a ton of
sound and play great. vintage character. The Dwell and Level Controls
allow you to fine tune the reverb for any volume
Speaking of the play, level, while the Speed and Depth Control on the
one of the coolest Vibrato allowed me to dial in what I can only
things about this amp describe as a murky shimmer.
is how it responds
to
the
touch.
The
CONCLUSION
envelope on the natural Besides “I love this amp”, the best thing I can
compression say is to check out the companion video playlist
allows
the notes to smoothly
we’ve put together for this column.
get fuller as you play
14
Sep Oct 2017
louder. This is where a $3,099 - $3,224
lot of Class AB amps MilkmanSound.com
GearTechRec.com